British East Africa. Part 3

Description

British East Africa. Part 3

Inhabitants

The white population is chiefly in the Kikuyu uplands, the rift-valley, and in the Kenya region. The whites are mostly agriculturists. There are also numbers of Indian settlers in the same districts. The African races include representatives of various stocks, as the country forms a borderland between the Negro and Hamitic peoples, and contains many tribes of doubtful affinities. The Bantu division of the negroes is represented chiefly in the south, the principal tribes being the Wakamba, Wakikuyu and Wanyika. By the north-east shores of Victoria Nyanza dwell the Kavirondo (q.v.), a race remarkable among the tribes of the protectorate for their nudity. Nilotic tribes, including the Nandi (q.v.), Lumbwa, Suk and Turkana, are found in the north-west. Of Hamitic strain are the Masai (q.v.), a race of cattle-rearers speaking a Nilotic language, who occupy part of the uplands bordering on the eastern rift-valley. A branch of the Masai which has adopted the settled life of agriculturists is known as the Wakuafi. The Galla section of the Hamites is represented, among others, by Borani living south of the Goro Escarpment (though the true Boran countries are Liban and Dirri in Abyssinian territory), while Somali occupy the country between the Tana and Juba rivers.

Of the Somali tribes the Herti dwell near the coast and are more or less stationary. Further inland is the nomadic tribe of Ogaden Somali. The Gurre, another Somali tribe, occupy the country south of the lower Daua. Primitive hunting tribes are the Wandorobo in Masailand, and scattered tribes of small stature in various parts. The coast-land contains a mixed population of Swahili, Arab and Indian immigrants, and representatives of numerous interior tribes.

Provinces And Towns

The protectorate has been divided into the provinces of Seyyidie (the south coast province, capital Mombasa); Ukamba, which occupies the centre of the protectorate (capital Nairobi); Kenya, the district of Mt. Kenya (capital Fort Hall); Tanaland, to the north of the two provinces first named (capital Lamu); Jubaland, the northern region (capital Kismayu); Naivasha (capital Naivasha); and Kisumu (capital Kisumu); each being in turn divided into districts and sub-districts. Naivasha and Kisumu, which adjoin the Victoria Nyanza, formed at first the eastern province of Uganda, but were transferred to the East Africa protectorate on the 1st of April 1902. The chief port of the protectorate is Mombasa (q.v.) with a population of about 30,000. The harbour on the south-west side of Mombasa island is known as Kilindini, the terminus of the Uganda railway. On the mainland, nearly opposite Mombasa town, is the settlement of freed slaves named Freretown, after Sir Bartle Frere. Freretown (called by the natives Kisaoni) is the headquarters in East Africa of the Church Missionary Society. It is the residence of the bishop of the diocese of Mombasa and possesses a fine church and mission house.

Lamu, on the island of the same name, 150 m. north-east of Mombasa, is an ancient settlement and the headquarters of the coast Arabs. Here are some Portuguese ruins, and a large Arab city is buried beneath the sands. The other towns of note on the coast are Malindi, Patta, Kipini and Kismayu. At Malindi, the "Melind" of Paradise Lost, is the pillar erected by Vasco da Gama when he visited the port in 1498. The harbour is very shallow. Kismayu, the northernmost port of the protectorate, 320 m. north-east of Mombasa, is the last sheltered anchorage on the east coast and is invaluable as a harbour of refuge. Flourishing towns have grown up along the Uganda railway. The most important, Nairobi (q.v.), 327 m. from Mombasa, 257 from Port Florence, was chosen in 1907 as the administrative capital of the protectorate. Naivasha, 64 m. north-north-west of Nairobi, lies in the rift-valley close to Lake Naivasha, and is 6230 ft. above the sea. It enjoys an excellent climate and is the centre of a European agricultural settlement.

Kisumu or Port Florence (a term confined to the harbour) is a flourishing town built on a hill overlooking Victoria Nyanza. It is the entrepôt for the trade of Uganda.